


Between Us

by Primarina (sherlockstummy)



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood Loss, Bloodlust, Brian Wecht is a badass, Fluff and Angst, Food, Gen, Ghoul Grumps, Ghouls, M/M, Vampire!Dan, Vampires, Werewolves, creature!Arin, dragon!Brian, necromancer!Suzy, pixie!Ross, there's lots of blood ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 21:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9516134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlockstummy/pseuds/Primarina
Summary: The heavy hand on his shoulder doesn’t surprise him, as he can identify the intruder by smell. Dan removes his headphones and turns to smile at his friend. “Hey, Arin."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone and their mother has written vampire!Dan and now it's my turn! Yay! Enjoy, everybunny!

Dan bobs his head to the music pumping through his headphones. It’s a little vain to jam out to your own music, but no one knows what he’s listening to, so no one can judge him. His eyes are transfixed on his computer screen, completely blocking out the outside world.

The heavy hand on his shoulder doesn’t surprise him, as he can identify the intruder on his private time by smell. Dan removes his headphones and turns to smile at his friend. “Hey, Arin.”

Arin smiles back. There’s stitching on his cheek that makes his mouth lopsided, so he looks a little dopey, like he’s purposely playing a character. There’s other stitching that hasn’t healed yet, angry and raised like scars. It darts around his neck, up and down his arms, in patches on his hands. As he shyly runs a hand through his hair, his shirt rides up, reminding Dan of the stitching running across his stomach and back. Since a lot of them are healing, the skin around them isn’t a gross, sick green or barf yellow. Some, though, will never deal.

“Want talk to you.” Arin’s voice is rough and scratchy at first, and he frowns at his broken sentence. It’s an unfortunate side-effect of the re-animation process, and it makes him sound dumb when, really, he isn’t. “Miss company.”

Dan’s smile fades a little. Arin still smells like Arin, the scent that Dan had catalogued immediately upon meeting him a couple years back. He smells like black pepper, like a heated cartridge in the old NES, like sweat. But there’s another scent that comes with him now, and it’s that scent which draws Dan unwillingly into a memory.

~

“Get away from him!” Dan’s teeth are bared, eyes red and wild, pointed ears pricked. He’s feral and he knows it, but he can’t stop. He’s stronger this way, and even though he’s starving, he can still punch a full-grown werewolf. He can feel the bruises forming on his body, the ache in his muscles that promises to rise to the foreground. It’s unfortunate that he’s let himself go this long without feeding, for any injuries that he sustains will last twice as long.

Dan snarls. “Back off!” He’s hovering over Arin’s body, bouncing from side to side like a boxer ready to weave, fists up, mouth open so that both sets of his dangerous fangs are exposed. He’s glamoring hard, though this time, it’s to look more menacing and not attractive; his fangs look larger and more dangerous, his eyes larger and redder. But the werewolves don’t care. They keep advancing. And Dan knows that it’s like throwing a cat into a pit of starving dogs. He won’t be able to fend them off for much longer. And Arin is losing blood fast; the scent has curled up in his nose, making his stomach ache and his throat burn like he swallowed a flaming sword.

There’s a whisper of change in the night wind, and a large, elegant Chinese dragon lands on the ground. Despite his great bulk, the trees barely shake, and the creatures around him only feel a whisper of vibration, like a miniature earthquake, but the eyes of the wolves cornering Dan and Arin rise upward to look.

The dragon, his ice blue eyes never leaving the alpha of the werewolf pack, a lean white bitch that is noticeably larger than the others, lowers his head. It is substantially larger than the vampire and human, but five wolves nose to tail could equal its length. Still, the wolves back away, creating an opening between the dragon and Dan and Arin. 

“This looks bad.” The dragon’s voice is not as low as you might expect, but despite the joke in his voice, he glances worriedly at the human. “You’d better get him to Suzy right away.”

Dan nods, bending without a second thought, and lifting Arin up in his arms. It’s not easy; Arin is heavy, but Dan can carry him usually due to a helpful weight ratio (up to 80lbs heavier than his weight). It’s only hard now because he’s weak from battle and malnutrition.

“Dan…” Arin moans, his head lolling against Dan’s shoulder. Blood is oozing from a wound at his side where one of the wolves jumped him, and it’s soaking into Dan’s shirt.

“I know, Big Cat,” Dan soothes. He takes a deep breath, and then all his remaining strength that isn’t being used to carry Arin is focused into speed, and he runs. It’s not running, at this rate. He’s flying, feet barely moving. This is sonic speed, or “Sonic the Hedgehog would be jealous” speed. He just has to get to Suzy’s. She’ll know what to do.

Somewhere distantly, he registers that Brian had threatened the werewolf pack: “Get away from here, or so help me, I will freeze you all where you stand.”

~

“Dan gone.” Arin says like he’s joking. 

Dan blinks and he’s returned to the present, Arin sitting next to him. He wonders if Arin’s figured out that, so far, he’s only talked in broken English. Sometimes, Arin’s not aware of it; he’ll babble on in baby-talk all day. Sometimes, he slips into it, like when he’s raging about a game.

Sometimes, though, Dan’s pretty sure it’s on purpose.

Arin’s sat next to him, and the scent coming off him increases due to their proximity. The reanimated man—creature—is warm where they’re touching thighs. It reassures Dan that Arin is still, theoretically, human. With a beating heart, blood, organs, and all.

“Yeah, sorry, Big Cat,” the vampire runs a hand through his mop of brown curls, chuckling self-deprecatingly. “I’ve been spacier than usual.” 

Arin rests a hand on Dan’s thigh. “It’s okay, man. I understand. We’ve…” His voice drops with his eyes, as if he’s afraid. “We’ve been through a lot recently.”

~

Suzy’s room is thick with the smell of sulfur and ash, the walls covered in bookcases and shelves stuffed to the brim with volumes and vials. Dan is keyed-up, so energized that he’s shaking, shifting from foot to foot like a kid trying not to piss their pants. He knows Suzy knows what she’s doing, but it doesn’t help. “Is he going to make it?” He asks. Arin’s blood is on his shirt, soaked through the cotton to his skin, and down the front of his shredded jeans. His throat is dry, scratchy like it’s sore, and his stomach is rumbling steadily. It’s been too long since he’s fed, and he’s tired, his head too light for his body. It doesn’t help that he’s hurting, bruises darkening on his knuckles from punching, shoulders from shoving, ribs from being shoved.

But Arin. Arin is more important than all of that.

Suzy nods, her eyes trained on Arin’s body as she works steadily. “You can’t rush the process, dear. But he’s very lucky, and so are you. A minute longer, and he would’ve been too far gone.”

Dan starts breathing again. Vampires don’t need to, but it tends to unsettle humans if they don’t. He must be really anxious if he didn’t register stopping. “Oh, thank God.”

“I thought you were agnostic,” Suzy smirks. She dresses like a typical necromancer, all gothic beauty and winged eyeliner, but her voice is high-pitched and her demeanor sweet. Dan has met his fair share of magic users in his lifetime, but Suzy is the first one he’s liked. Necromancers and vampires can rarely be friends, but he and Suzy make it work.

She smells and tastes like the dead, but they get along fine.

Dan rolls his eyes and hovers at her shoulder. She’s about a head shorter, and he knows that she can feel him hovering. The aura of a starving vampire is not a pleasant one on its own, but adding in anxiety and nerves must make it seem like a loud noise is about to sound behind her.

Right on cue, Suzy shivers. “You’re making me antsy. Go get changed, or something.”

Dan looks down. He looks like he just stepped off the set of a slasher fic, though he smells much more delicious. Fresh clothes would make it easier to concentrate and ease the aura of the room for Suzy, but Dan is reluctant to leave Arin’s side. “But…Arin…”

“Or you can stay.” Suzy chimes in agreeably, and Dan lets out a heavy breath. “Just stay over there.”

“Okay.” Dan backs up against a sturdy wooden table and, after making sure he’s not going to crush any important experiments, papers, or familiars, he slides his nearly nonexistent ass onto its surface and tries to relax.

Arin’s made it through the woods. Now, all he has to do is wake up.

~

“Wake up,” Arin waves his hand before Dan’s eyes. “Hellloooooooo, Earth to Dan Avidan!”

Dan chuckles. “Sorry, man. I’m a little spacey.”

“You said that already.” Arin’s patched hand cradles Dan’s cheek in his palm. His hands were always rough, but Dan can feel the ribbing of the stitch against his alabaster skin. 

The vampire hates the way he sighs, leaning into Arin’s touch wearily, eyes falling shut of their own accord. “You and I have been to hell and back. And I’m not talking about the live shows.”

Arin chuckles, his voice low and sensual. “I’d be in hell if it weren’t for you.” His thumb passes over Dan’s cheekbone. “Sorry, did I startle you?”

Dan shakes his head, eyes flowing open like water. “I can smell pretty much everybody before they sneak up on me. Only Ross gets the better of me, the bastard.” He chuckles.

“Yeah, I remember you told me once that pixies smell like air.”

“Well, Ross smells like milk,” Dan frowns. “But it’s so faint, and the dust makes me sneeze.” Ross did have a nasty habit of scaring Dan shitless by sneaking up on him, but these days, he was more often than not accompanied by Brian. And Brian had the strongest smell, a mixture between charcoal and ice. Dan could practically smell Brian the minute he walked into the office.

Arin laughs softly, letting his hand drop from Dan’s cheek. The vampire misses the warmth, and he longs to take Arin’s hand in his and draw it back and keep it there. Even in his customary leather jacket, with a blanket splayed across his legs, he feels cold.

“Do you miss it?” Dan asks. “Being human?”

Arin sighs. “I still feel human,” he explains. “I don’t…feel different. Except that you’ve been avoiding me.” He tilts his head from side, trying to bore his deep brown eyes into Dan’s as the older man avoids him, for he knows that once he’s caught in that gaze, he’ll be hypnotized. “I think the Lovelies are getting worried.”

Dan folded his hands in his lap. “I…I was afraid…” One hand violently fluttered away from the other and ended up in his mass of curls.   
“That I’d somehow hate you?” Arin guessed, taking Dan’s hand in his own. “You saved my life! Why would I…?”

“And in saving your life, I had to take it!” Dan wanted to pull his hand away, but instead, his fingers wrapped around Arin’s. He bent his head, feeling his ears grow pointed, his fangs extending. The burn hadn’t been so much before now, when he was agitated and close to being feral. It had felt more like he was dehydrated. But now… 

Dan’s breath was almost cold on Arin’s hand. The creature cocked his head, confused. “Dan…” He placed a hand in Dan’s curls. “I don’t miss being human,” he said gently. “If I were still human, I wouldn’t be here, with you.”

~

“Dan,” Suzy’s soft voice is close to his ear. “Dan, wake up!”

“Huh? Wahzzat?” Dan startled awake, nearly knocking over a book as he stretched, popping his back, aching from the weird position he’d slept in, his body yelling at him about his various, slow-healing injuries. 

“Arin’s breathing, all on his own.” Suzy smiled, her black-painted lips peeling back to reveal her devilishly white teeth. “He’s asleep.”

Dan felt lighter instantly. “Oh, good.” He ran a nervous hand through his hair.

Suzy’s hand rested over his. “You must really care about him, huh?”

Dan enveloped her tiny hand with his own. “Yeah,” he murmured, watching Arin’s stocky form breathe peacefully in rest. “Yeah, I fuckin do.”

~

Dan looked up at Arin. “Then…” His eyes darted wildly, trying to track any change in Arin’s expression.

Arin looked…terrified? The terror changed to sorrow soon enough, and it gave Dan time to look away, ashamed.

“You haven’t hunted since the live shows, have you?” Arin’s hand found Dan’s cheek again, and, once again, Dan wearily melted into Arin’s palm.

“You know me well,” Dan sighed tiredly, leaning his weight briefly on Arin’s hand. Now that his glamor had faded away with his outburst, his skin was pale, nearly translucent, and much colder to the touch than usual. Deep purple grooves had taken up residence under his eyes, making him look sick and dead. His cheekbones were more pronounced, collarbones standing out all the more against his black Rush tee shirt. He looked horribly unwell.

“Oh, Dan,” Arin cooed, drawing Dan closer, into his lap, thankful for the privacy afforded them. With the other grumps recording or out for an early lunch, there was no one to disturb them in the main room. As Dan relented and melted into him, carefully curling up his long limbs to fit perfectly against Arin’s broad chest, the creature could feel how thin starving had made Dan become. Arin danced his fingers down Dan’s back, tracing the knobs of his spine. Lying with his cheek pressed against Arin’s sternum, Dan hummed and sighed at Arin’s touches. “Poor thing. You must be so hungry.” Arin pressed hot lips to Dan’s cool forehead.

Dan tried to swallow a whimper as the burning in his throat flared up painfully and his stomach clenched. He was close enough to Arin now that the blood was loud in his body, his heart pumping the life fluid to every vital organ. The vampire cried out as searing pain overwhelmed him from seemingly everywhere.

Arin, shocked, drew his hand away from Dan’s hip. The older man had injured it while goofing around after the tour had finished. That was over a week ago. The fact that he hadn’t made a full recovery, or recovered at all, told Arin the situation was dire. “Baby,” he said softly, “I can’t give you enough to make you well.”

Dan shifted against him like a cat trying to get comfortable. “I hardly want to be, anyway. Mmm.” He settled down with his ear against Arin’s heart. “I can feel you, warm and alive, right here beneath me. That makes me well enough.”

“Stop that,” Arin ordered, clenching his fist in Dan’s hair. “You’re not healing. You’re probably bruised up like a pear from knocking into the table yesterday, not to mention your hip!”

“Stop yelling at me,” Dan said in a small voice, nuzzling under Arin’s chin.

“Sorry, baby. I’m sorry.” Arin relaxed, reaching up to cup his hand around Dan’s neck. The vampire was right against the prominent vein in his neck, and Arin knew that his smell was strongest there, and that Dan would be the most tempted to feed in this position. 

Dan, meanwhile, heard the call of the blood in Arin’s veins. The creature had gotten worked up, causing the blood to pump faster until the sound was as loud as waves crashing on the shore. The vampire was so hungry, he could barely stand it. He was starving, not having fed for weeks…months… He was always shit at forgetting to eat, since he barely needed to. He was…not ancient, not old, but well-controlled. He always had been a poor eater, right from the day he was turned. It is truly what had suited his living amongst humans after the coven disowned him.

Arin smelled so good, and Dan was starving. His stomach twisted and his throat burned. He’d been feeling lightheaded for a while now, too long to count, and even small cuts and bruises now longed to be healed. He was tired, too. He had trouble staying awake while they recorded. Starving is awful. It does nothing for vampires; there is no advantage to it. Dan’s tongue snuck out from between his teeth, and it was inches from touching skin before Dan could pull it back inside, whimpering and trying to get free. But Arin was holding his neck fast; he wasn’t going to let go.

And, right now, Arin was stronger than Dan.

“Let me go,” Dan whimpered. “I’m starving, Arin. I can’t stand being this close to your neck.”

“I know you’re starving,” Arin replied, his voice soft. Dan could feel his vocal chords vibrating against him, and he swallowed. “I want you to bite me.”

Dan let out a huff. “It won’t kill me to starve, Arin.”

“No, but I’m worried something else might.” Arin was aware that he was panicking, that his heart beating faster meant his blood was rushing through his veins, but he couldn’t help it. He was scared. “If the werewolf pack comes back, if you get hit by a car, stabbed, if Brian friggin steps on you…” They both huffed a soft laugh at that.

“Arin,” Dan said gently. “That’s not going to happen. I promise.”

“I miss you,” Arin said softly. “Take blood from me again. I miss feeling connected to you.” He squeezed Dan’s neck. “Please, Dan.”

Dan closed his eyes and sighed in defeat. Arin, sensing his victory, let him go, and Dan sat back on Arin’s lap, slowly opening his eyes, revealing that they were now a deep, bloodshot red where there would normally only be soft hazel. “I miss you, too,” he said, reaching up to card through Arin’s soft hair, tucking it behind his ears fondly. “I miss being connected to you. I miss the taste of your blood…” he wet his lips hungrily, showing his two sets of fangs. Arin didn’t even flinch.

“What does my blood taste like, Dan?” Arin closed his eyes slowly, tilting his head so that his neck was on display for the vampire. Even though he was about to be prey, he smirked in satisfaction at his victory. Bastard.

“Like gingerbread,” Dan replied, leaning in and licking a long strip across Arin’s neck, from his pulse point all the way to his hairline. He swallowed down the taste of Arin on his tongue; mostly sweat, admittedly, but delicious because it was Arin. “Not too sweet, but like…cinnamon and nutmeg. Like comfort. Like home.” He was babbling slightly, delirious from hunger. He really did himself a disservice, starving for so long…

Arin whimpered slightly in pleasure as Dan drew closer. “I can’t wait. Connect us again, Dan. Take my blood. I want you to heal yourself and get well. I want you to drink until you’re full.”

Dan let out a soft chuckle. “Careful, Captain Sexy. If that is your wish, we’ll have to visit Suzy afterward.”

Arin gasped as Dan kissed the familiar spot on his neck, just under the pulse point, where Dan liked to take from. He was surprised that he remembered it, and that he was so excited to feel his lifeblood going into Dan again. “I’d let you. I’d let you drink me dry, if it would help you.”

Dan felt the feral side of him twitch in interest; he hadn’t killed anyone by taking their blood since he was young and stupid and didn’t know when to pull off, but the instinct to take as much as he desired was always there, even more so now that he was starving. “Be careful, Arin,” he murmured, kissing Arin once more and giving the younger man a chance to pull away. “You can’t say things like that when I’m this hungry.” 

“I’m sorry,” Arin replied sincerely. Dan’s stomach twinged painfully, and he gasped, falling heavily onto Arin’s shoulder. The younger man wrapped his arms around Dan, quick to support him as the vampire breathed heavily, clutching at his stomach, trying to comfort it. “Dan! Are you okay?” The creature ran nervous fingers through Dan’s curls and up and down his back, trying to soothe him.

“…Yeah,” Dan’s voice was low and soft, barely even a whisper. “I…really need to feed, though.”

Arin tilted his head again. “I offer you as much as I can safely give.”

Dan weakly inched his way up, helping Arin keep his head in place so the younger man wouldn’t be harmed more than, y’know, letting two pairs of sharp canines enter your neck by force. “Let us be connected, then.” He breathed against the skin where he was about to penetrate to let Arin know, and then he sank his fangs in quick and deep.

Arin cried out in pain but, after the initial pinch, it wasn’t so bad. He could feel his blood flowing into Dan, feel the bond between them solidifying, increasing, binding the two of them through shared blood. Feeding was intimate. Not sexually, not necessarily, but it very much bared everything you were. And it made two beings closer the more a certain prey was frequented.

Dan always made the cutest noises while feeding, too. It reminded Arin of a suckling child, almost. The vampire made soft coos and sighs that spoke of contentment, affection, and love. Arin closed his eyes, and let himself be lost to the feeling, trusting Dan completely with his life.

The vampire was relieved to feed. Dan had been starving, and now he’d been offered his favorite meal, a meal he’d been afraid to request. He was uncertain what Arin would want after his reanimation. A part of Dan had feared that Arin would somehow be different than the human he’d come to know and love.

But no, Arin remained the same. And as Dan drank, filling his stomach with warm blood and soothing the burn in his throat, he felt the love returned. And he knew now that nothing would separate them. That nothing could.

It was the two of them against the world.

From where Dan had perched, he could feel Arin’s heartbeat and his breath and monitor both while drinking. He wasn’t usually a vampire that got lost in feeding, but, since he was especially hungry, he didn’t want to risk Arin’s life. The vampire pulled away from Arin, licking the wounds to clear them. He was almost completely full, and he certainly felt warm and sleepy. 

Arin tilted his head carefully back towards Dan. He looked tired, but his heartbeat was still strong in his chest. “Did…did you get enough?”

“Yeah, Big Cat,” Dan purred. He looked more human now, without even having to glamor. His soft hazel eyes were back, fangs greatly reduced in size, skin pinker and warmer, filled out more where he’d been far too thin from starving. “I feel amazing.” The bond between them buzzed due to the shared blood between them, a bubble of affection and comfort that couldn’t be broken. Over time, the buzz would fade to background static, but, for now, the two didn’t want to leave each other.

Dan reached over to the side table and fumbled around in the drawer for a juice box, kept there in case of feedings. Once he found it, he stabbed the top of the box and lifted it to Arin’s slightly pale lips. “Drink,” he encouraged.

Arin drank deeply. Once he was finished, he pulled Dan close. “Wanna snuggle,” he said childishly. “Want Snuggle Man.”

“Are you sleepy?’ Dan asked, settling against Arin’s warm chest.

“Yeah.” Arin yawned.

“Me too.” Dan admitted.

“Nap?” Arin asked gruffly, voice rough already from tire.

“Sounds good to me,” Dan hummed, closing his eyes.

Finally, he could fall asleep in peace.

**Author's Note:**

> I still want to feed Danny up. That should be obvious at this point. -_-' poor skinny mini.
> 
> Anyway, I had fun exploring Arin as a creature, since a lot of Ghoul Grumps AUs I've seen cast him as something else. Eh. It was interesting to me, anyway.
> 
> Hope you like it!


End file.
